Men’s Golf | 12/30/2021 8:00:00 PM
While only a select few golfers will ever know what it’s like to win an individual NCAA title, McLean knew that feeling after just one season with the Gophers. The conference’s Freshman of the Year became the program’s second-ever individual national champion – its first in 54 years – when he claimed the crown in 1998.
McLean fired a final round three-under par 69 to capture the individual title at the 1998 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course in Albuquerque, N.M. McLean’s 72-hole total score of 17-under par 271 tied the NCAA individual all-time 72-hole record set by Arizona State’s Phil Mickelson in 1991. McLean birdied the second, fifth, ninth and 10th holes to move to 18-under par. After narrowly missing birdie putts at 13 and 14, the Australian parred 15 and 16 before an errant tee shot at the 248-yard, par three 17th hole found the left rough. McLean flopped a wedge shot to within 12 feet and calmly sank the par putt to hold at 18 under. McLean tagged his longest drive of the day on the 597-yard, par five 18th hole, blasting the ball through the fairway dogleg into the left rough. After a layup shot and a pitch left McLean 25 feet away from the cup, he three-putted the hole to finish with his only bogey of the day and only his second of the last two rounds. Three competitors still had the opportunity to pass McLean before the title was sealed. The closest someone came to upending McLean was Chris Berry of team champion UNLV. Berry was tied with McLean at 17-under par before bogeying the 17th hole. Needing a birdie to tie and force a playoff, Berry narrowly missed a 20-foot uphill putt, giving Minnesota its first NCAA individual golf title since Louis Lick in 1944.
To this day, the Australian native McLean holds the program’s record for career scoring average (71.49), a mark that has been virtually unchallenged, with the next best sitting a full stroke higher. He also holds the two lowest season scoring averages in school history, the two years in which he earned All-America honors. McLean helped lead the Gophers to the NCAA Finals three times before turning pro, where he went on to play on the PGA Tour from 2002-05.
McLean was inducted into the “M” Club Hall of Fame as part of the 2018 class. When asked that year about what the induction meant to him, McLean offered, “It’s a massive honor. It’s quite humbling; I really wasn’t expecting it. It’s a huge honor and I’m just so proud that I went to the U of M. I tell everybody back home about my college experience. I always try to encourage more junior golfers to explore the opportunities of playing in America.”
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